Radam Schwarts Pay Up

This song (and artist) features the Hammond B-3 slinking around in the background. Of course the B-3 is “the jazz organ”. Other well known artist include Steve Winwood and Mamie's husband Durham!

Radam is another one of those people that has come out of the session player pool to record and release a few of his own records.

What caught my ear in this piece is the smash up with the spoken word; Hip-hop style no less. I’ve looked everywhere for the lyrics … but no success. However, if you click on this link, you can drag the time-line to hear them. Of course, I think the reason I tune into lyrics is because I’m inspired that so much story can be packed into so few words. CLEARLY NOT MY TALENT.

Besides the galloping guitar rhythm, I also like the horn section doing the chord progressions.

If you listen to “You’ll Always Be My Baby” you’ll see what a departure this song is for Radam. It’s kind of got that 70’s “groovy vibe” goin’ on, doesn’t it?

Last night I had graphics rehearsal for church on Sunday. Then I totally avoided working on my homework for tonight (it’s only one page) and went to dinner (at my favorite taco place – 4^th time there in two weeks!) with Dr. Whiny. It was great to see him. And kind of interesting. I was just bursting with things to talk about – and somewhere in there he noted how “up” I was … I told him it was a nice place to be because for the last three weeks I’ve been down in the pit.

Also – I took a really scary step and wrote to another author, Karen Abbott, and asked her some questions about where the line was between writing a historical narrative or writing a piece of historical fiction – and how much “truth” I can include and how much I can make up with out sloppily weaving in between the two.

Amazingly enough I got a reply back from her! She has asked some really good questions about the story – and I think this is going to be very helpful. I also want to write to Tom Franklin, author of “Hell at the Breech”. He came to Quail Ridge once and talked about mixing historically correct details with a good story. Unfortunately I wasn’t trying to write at that time – so I just remember him talking about reading old JCPenny Catalogs so his clothing descriptions were accurate. And how he wanted to put an armadillo in the story, because they're become his "mark", but his editor told him, "You can't do that! Armadillo's didn't arrive in Alabama until recently." (see, I always remember the important stuff *sigh) Hopefully he’ll be approachable too.

Finally, today is Duke Ellington's b'day. He was born in 1899 (so I assume that means if here were still alive he'd be 100. Of course, you know me and math that could be totally wrong.) I like the complexity of his music. How it crosses lines between symphonic and swing.